What do you think this man fights for?

The word “Crusade” comes from the Latin word “Crux”, meaning cross. It refers to the cross on which Christ was crucified.

Life in the Middle Ages was hard. People did not understand the world around them. They could not understand why the harvest failed, why their child got sick or why their cow died. They did not know what the stars were, or that the Earth revolved around the sun, or why objects fell to the ground. Life was fragile, precarious and a complete mystery.

The only source of comfort in people’s lives, the only thing that offered people explanations of the world around them, was the Church. The Church has never been as important to people as it was then.

The word Islam means both 'peace' and 'submission'. It is the second largest religion in the world with over one billion followers. Islam was revealed over 1400 years ago in Mecca, Arabia. Followers of Islam are called Muslims. Muslims believe that there is only One God. The Arabic word for God is Allah. According to Muslims, God sent a number of prophets to mankind to teach them how to live. Jesus, Moses and Abraham are respected as prophets of God. They believe that the final Prophet was Muhammad (peace be upon him). Muslims base their laws on their holy book the Qur'an, and the Sunnah. The Sunnah is the practical example of the Prophet Muhammad. There are five basic Pillars of Islam. These pillars are the declaration of faith, praying five times a day, giving money to charity, fasting and a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Arab world at the time of the Crusades was relatively peaceful. An Arab gentleman was expected to be a poet and a philosopher as well as a warrior. By the time of the Crusades, the Arab world had already correctly calculated the distance from the Earth to the Moon. One Arab man had even suggested that if he could split the atom, it would destroy a city the size of Baghdad. Jerusalem under Muslim rule was a multicultural city and pilgrims had free access to holy sites.

However, in 1071 fanatical Turkish Muslims captured the city of Jerusalem and stopped tolerating pilgrims. Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to regain the holy city.

The first Crusade was in 1096A.D. 30,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 knights on horseback took the city of Jerusalem and held it for nearly ninety years.

In the 1180s, the Arabs found a strong leader in Saladin. Richard the Lionheart fought him but eventually failed to beat him.

The Children’s Crusade, Children and peasants travelled from the Rhineland and Southern France. What actually happened to them remains a source of considerable historiographical debate.

The Knights Templar The Templar Knights were a Christian religious order. They were both monks and soldiers, who protected pilgrims in Jerusalem in the aftermath of the first Crusade. Some of their financial innovations could be considered the foundation of modern banking. But… there is no more mystery to them than that!